ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Ethiopia is preparing to launch the fourth filling of its mega-dam reservoir on the Blue Nile, the country's deputy prime minister announced Thursday, despite opposition from its downstream neighbor Egypt.
The massive $4.2 billion Grand
Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, GERD, has been at the center of a regional dispute
ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011.
Egypt and at times Sudan have
repeatedly asked Addis Ababa to stop filling the reservoir.
"The GERD is now
approaching its fourth filling. The last three fillings have not affected lower
riparian states. Likewise, the rest of the fillings will not be any
different," Demeke Mekonnen, who also serves as foreign minister, said.
"The project is near
completion, withstanding the rhetoric of some actors that seek to monopolize
the use of the shared African river," he said, opening a conference on the
Nile in Addis Ababa.
The meeting includes a
"high-level ministerial round table," with Demeke and his foreign
minister counterparts from some Nile Basin nations such as Uganda, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Tanzania participating.
But neither Sudan nor Egypt,
the two countries located downstream of the Ethiopian dam, are represented.
Khartoum and Cairo have
previously cited it as a threat because of their dependence on Nile waters,
while Ethiopia deems it essential for its electrification and development.
While Egypt, which depends on
the Nile for around 97% of its irrigation needs, insists that the dam poses an
"existential" threat, Khartoum's position has fluctuated.
Sudan's leader, Abdel Fattah
al-Burhan, said in January that Khartoum and Addis Ababa are "aligned and
in agreement" over the dam.
Sudan has been ravaged since
mid-April by deadly fighting between forces loyal to Burhan and his rival and
former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, with more than 2,000 people killed and over
2 million displaced.
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